* ActorAllusion: In the 1980s TV series ''Series/{{V}}'', one of the important characters is a battle-hardened Resistance leader fighting against the Visitors, a group of extraterrestrial lizard-people. In this movie, the [[BigBad main villain]] is a psychotic human warrior fighting ''with'' a group of lizard-men as their leader (see below). Both characters are named Tyler, and both roles are played by MichaelIronside.* HeyItsThatVoice: The original movie features quite a few alumni of ''Series/{{SCTV}}''. Of note:** The police desk sergeant, Den, and the robot are all voiced by Film/UncleBuck himself.** [[Film/{{Ghostbusters}} Egon Spengler]] is the green stoner alien, Zeke.** [[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros Bowser]] is one of the henchmen during the Harry Canyon sequence.** Also in the Harry Canyon sequence, [[TheRaccoons Susan]] [[Anime/SailorMoon Roman]] is the Girl.** [[Film/AnimalHouse Dean Wormer]] is the guy prosecuting Captain Sternn.** [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Squidward]] is Hanover Fiste and Dr. Anrak.** You half expect Captain Sternn's lawyer to yell [[Film/HappyGilmore "Ya JACKASS!"]]** [[WesternAnimation/{{Doug}} Beebe Bluff]] is Gloria the redheaded secretary.** Subverted, however, with Captain Sternn and Edsel the purple stoner alien, who both sound NOTHING like [[Film/AmericanPie Eugene Levy's]] natural speaking voice.** [[WesternAnimation/AtomicBetty Maximus IQ Sr.]] is Grimaldi, the B-17 co-pilot, and one of the barbarians in Taarna.* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Elmer Bernstein reworked some of his ''Heavy Metal'' score as "Dana's Theme" from ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}''.* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The plot was meant to be connected and more complex than an anthology, but due to the release date being bumped up and a rushed production, the animation had to be done by several animation houses, including [=CinéGroup=] and Atkinson Film-Arts. Some of the ideas were Hanover Fiste showing up in So Beautiful, So Dangerous, appearing on Zeke and Edsel's ship, saying "Sternn will go free!" and a sequence linking Sternn and B-17 called Neverwhereland, wherein the Loc-Nar lands on a planet and affecting its development.** Kyle Gass had revealed that the director of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' had approached Music/TenaciousD with an idea for a remake of Heavy Metal. The band was to appear in it as a duo of alien stoners, and they even composed the song [[XtremeKoolLetterz "Deth Starr"]] for the film. Unfortunately, though, the idea never came to pass for fear that [[AnimationAgeGhetto an R-rated cartoon would not sell well]], so the band ended up releasing the song years later on their album ''Rize of the Fenix''.